Let’s Give Scott Parse Our Full Support

If Terry Murray didn’t make random and illogical roster changes that contradict objective observation or even his own spoken sentiment, he wouldn’t be Terry Murray. Expect the unexpected is Murray’s Mantra. Let’s not hold that against Scott Parse. The fact Parse has played below average this preseason and arguably earned nothing in either of the past two seasons (27 years old, 64 career games, 12 goals, 16 assists) doesn’t mean he can’t finally have a break through. If he does well, great, the Kings have unexpected depth in their top 6. If he doesn’t, Terry Murray made yet another questionable call. We’ll add that to the list. If that happens, Scott Parse may be packaged in a trade, as I doubt the L.A. Kings will waive him.

My concern for Scott Parse is this – in Terry Murray’s perpetual cycling system, if the left wing has the puck, he carries the puck up the boards and cycles it back. The wing would then dish off the puck to the defenseman. Under Murray’s system, if Parse were to pick up Dustin Penner’s duties, he would also get to the front of the net to deflect shots or pick up rebounds. Do such duties play to Scott Parse’s strengths? If you answered yes, I look forward to your comments. If you answered no, I am with you. I see Parse getting knocked off the puck a lot and not establishing much of a net presence.

Now, if we didn’t play an outdated offensive game, Scott Parse would take the role of carrying the puck more and getting shots on net, he would make lateral passes to a center or hit a rushing defenseman. He would also receive the pass from the right wing while spreading the defense and forcing the goaltender to move lateral – less time against the boards, more time generating quality scoring chances, especially the ever deadly one timer.

It will be interesting to see how Parse does in this first line role and, most importantly, how long he will last. One bad game and he’s out or will he be given a fair opportunity? Expect the unexpected.

37 replies

I will cheer for him as much as any other player. I never want a player on our team to fail but I do hope that the best possible players are on our roster. I dont believe that happened, but that isn’t Scott’s fault. Many people in this life take dumb luck and run with it, lets hope that is Parse’s fate to start the season.

If I were named Kozun I would focus really hard on being able to play the left side this year.

For the life of me I can’t see what the hell everybody is thinking with comments about get rid of Parse. Voynov can be sent down without the Kings losing anybody. Voynov wouldn’t play because he would be a 7th. Voynov can be called up at anytime. If Penner or Gagne gets hurt Voynov can’t replace them.

Has everyone lost their common sense here, or am I missing something?

Parse will take a couple of months to get going because he has sat for a year. He is not in a key situation where we have to depend on him only (Like the top 6). He can fill in temporarely till Penner or whoever comes back, and fill out on the 3rd, and 4rth lines. We can’t make it through an entire season without an insurance policy in case of injury, because the next guy on the depth chart is King.

Where is all this stupidty coming from so I can stamp it out? We need that depth to complete the season, and waiving him to keep Voynov (or similar comments) is the dumbest thing I seen posters say since they said the Kings can’t manage 7 million vs 6.8 million because the Kings have to be fiscally responsible.

Parse is just a transitional player right now. He will take a couple of months because he sat for a year. That depth once he does some into his own will help us, or DL will find another by the trade deadline.

I agree with you Dominick. Not only does it make no sense to cut Parse on a logistical level, I am also rather annoyed that so many people have chosen to use this tiny 5 game preseason sample as their proof that he’s no good. Fair warning: I’m about to go on a rant. Here are some facts.

1) He sat for a year. He’s rusty.

2) He’s been playing out of position until recently, when – surprise! – he’s played LW and looked a lot better. I don’t know why people think this is not a big issue. It’s a huge issue. Loktionov looked terrible on the wing. Dustin Brown plays a lot worse on the LW than RW. Even swiss-army knife Richardson has a “natural” position (Center) where he’s most effective. Guys should play the position they’re actually supposed to play. Yeah, I know. Revolutionary.

3) Over the past two seasons, Parse has scored more goals per minute than Justin Williams or Dustin Brown. He gets more assists per minute than Kopitar or Doughty. Parse, yes – Scott Flippin’ Parse – is the guy who led the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Kings in points per minute. Let me put it this way: in 2010, if Parse had played as many minutes as Anze Kopitar and he had continued scoring at the same clip, he would have had 98 points. In 2011, if he had played as many minutes as Kopitar and continued scoring at the same pace, he would have had 108 points. Wanna claim “small sample size”? Well, it’s a hell of a lot bigger than his 5 game preseason sample. (Btw, I found all my statistics at behindthenet.ca)

Parse may not work out – maybe he’ll never be the guy he was – but trashing the dude after 5 games (I’m really looking at the LAKI posters more than anyone here) really annoys the crap out of me. He has shown flashes of brilliance in the past, and has been good more often than he’s been bad. Let’s at least give him a fair chance.

Part of my concern is that I’ve never seen Parse do anything useful when he isn’t scoring, and looking at Murray’s offense, no one really is scoring much so you better be abe to contribute to other facets of the game. Sad but true. I am willing to give Parse a chance, but I also have a hard time believing he will be able to be the guy who breaks through the inevitable slumps of offense that will happen under our system. During those long, tedious times, is he playing defense? I’ve never seen it. Hitting? No.

As for Dwight King being next on the depth chart, that’s again a bizarre quirk of Murray’s. If parse can’t hang with Kopi while Gagne or Penner are down, then i put Richardson up there. Richardson can play very nice offense when put with skilled players. Hunter can score goals too and i believe he has played on the left side plenty in his ast (thou i may be wrong about that). My point is that its not total doom behind Penner and Gagne if Parse doesn’t snap out of the lackluster play he has shown since camp began. Dude definitely has skill, but does he have the fire of an NHL player and the dynamism of a consistent scorer? I don’t know. Even when he was scoring i didn’t think he was particularly great. Do you have the stats on who he was playing with most of that time?

Well, his QualTeam in 2009-2010 when he played 59 games was -0.042, which was 17th out of 24 on the Kings, so it’s not like he was playing with the big boys very much. His TOI/g was around 10 minutes, with basically no power play time.

TM noted that Parse seemed to be lacking that “first step” that made him so effective in the past. You have to wonder if that’s not still injury related. I’m hoping it’s just rust.

Everything has already been said, so, I’ll just say, put me on the list of Parse supporters….

I haven’t seen a single second of Kings hockey this summer, so it’s hard for me to figure out why he’s having such a difficult time being productive. He has the skills, It has to be the injury, right? I agree, we must give him some time to get his game back.

It would be great if you (or a guest writer) could write a (series of) post(s) detailing the basics of our systems. E.g., roles and responsibilities of LW, C, RW and when does the roles switch to F1, F2, F3 instead of being based on positional “alignment.” What’s the core defensive structure? How does the preferred breakout develop. Etc.

Did it and have had it in draft form but, bluntly, it came off waaaaay too technical. I can revisit it but making that read like something other than a text book is not easy. I can give it another try. I will insert a few curse words here and there and draw on my collection of metaphors to make it interesting. :)

No worries – the post would be there for those who want it. Some posts (most, probably) aren’t for every fan. You will definitely have an audience on this site (perhaps only on this site)for this one.

I’ve practiced my trade for a long time, but keep the basic text next to my desk. I know that you research the cases for each brief/motion etc. – including cases you have read/summarized etc. before – you always learn something new (lose humility, get humiliated). And, the interplay of the basics always looks different as your understanding improves.

It would also be a very good starting point for discussion of TM’s system/assignments. From there, it fits right into, for example, how Parse is not Robitaille.

Because that worked so will for Teddy Purcell, who left the kings and all of sudden he found the back of the net. Sure he was playing with Vinny and that other kid, but having seen first hand what the staff WANTS you to do vs what your talents are, well, those are two different stories.

Should, but don’t hope for it, even if we want Murray gone. That’s bad joo-joo Matt. Purcell is a bad example though, to me anyways. Moulson is the better one, that guy wasn’t given much a chance and was let go prematurely to be sure, Purcell however was given many chances and seemed to need to be shaken up with a trade to be woken up (the less heavy game of the eastern conference helped too).

I suspect TM needs to get to the Conf. finals to come back next year. Would losing in the Conf. semis be enough? At the least, losing in Conf. semis would generate nasty public debate and openly raise the question under DL’s nose. He would likely be obliged to tell Helene what he’s thinking.

To me, we are out of our griping faze and into the regular season. ANYONE who is on the roster from the time the first puck of the regular season is dropped until the playoffs end who wears a Kings uniform has my full support regardless of their game.

They are OUR team and OUR players and that is that as far as I am concerned. It doesn’t matter if I like them or want them on the team or not to me. I see the team as being our own and these are our guys one and all so all they have is my respect and support.

Parse is on the roster so F YES!!! Parse can and will get his goals and pick up his game as he goes along and if not he will be valuable in other ways. He is OUR guy and as such I want him to give us his best and he will get mine for certain.

Pre season is over.

These are our players and all I have for each of them is 100% backing and support.

They have our support, but they also dont have a free pass. It’s the “oh he’ll get it together after 10 or so games” thing that bothers me. First of all what if he doesn’t? Well then that’s a big old waste of very precious games. And even if he does, I just in general don’t like the idea of continually playing a guy who isn’t playing well in the hopes that by playing more he will start playing well. If you are on the ice in the regular season then you need to be playing well. Every two points is too precious to be using any of that time as what ultimately amounts to glorified, high paid rehab.

I agree with what your saying but once the season starts I like to let things take care of themselves for as long as possible and just take the team that we are given and give them all of my support. If we are stuck with Parse and his inconsistent play then so be it.

If Kompon still struggles at his job and TM is still one of the least talented coaches in the entire world then fine. I give them all enough time to sort things out and give them my support.

If I were sitting in that locker room I want the fans behind me and my team mates and that is all. So that is what I give them. IF Parse doesn’t pull it together and is still on the roster stinking things up by the all star break then that might be another thing but until then, this is our team and this is what we have to cheer for and support.

I mean, Parse isn’t the only player I would replace given the chance so since I have to accept a few other players on the team I might as well include SP and give him my support too.

This is our team and you know the one thing that scares the shit out of me more than anything? Is us building a semi all star team. Those things rarely work out the way you want them to and I think we are getting close to building one of those teams. I want a few more character guys for my taste and we have them down on the farm waiting.

So like I said, I think of sitting in my cubby in the locker room and looking each of the guys on the team in the eye before each and every game and letting them know that I am going to give everything humanly possible to win each night and they damned well better do the same.

SP gets all of my support once the puck drops on opening night if he is on the team because I demand and insist he plays up to the standards that I expect of him. He is going to get my best and I expect his.

I just saw the pass he made to Kopi when he scored. I don’t know really understand what the big deal was about it. Shit I coulda made that pass. If the defender didn’t poke check it first that play woulda never happened.

Just going to stand there and watch me burn….but thats allright…..because i like the way it hurts….just going to stand there and hear me cry…..buts thats allright because i love the way u lie…..FU TERRY!

Sound advice. Also, do what you can to keep your comments self contained. The multiple comments with a letter here and letter there are fun and all, but make keeping track of your thoughts challenging…or is that the goal, you freak?

Dominick is having a moment of lucidity here: His discussion of Parse makes excellent sense.

I lament the dearth of profanity and pornographic metaphor in his post, but — what the fuck? — SOME intelligence makes it through even without these essential rhetorical supports.

Parse was supposed to start last season as our numbah-one left-wing. He gets hurt in pre-season. He tries to come back during the year — not yet recovered. He puts his toe in the playoffs — and he’s AWFUL. But so was Williams when he tried to come back too quickly in the series against Vancouver.

I say give the guy a chance to show what impressed TM and the resta the crew before last year’s training camp. If he falls through his ass, okay. Even the naysayers admit that the rest of our cupboard isn’t bare.

To be honest . . . I think his biggest defect on this site is the proximity of his name to that of ANOTHER winger, now playing 3,000 miles away, whom SJ and BS want so desperately they’ll sacrifice the Lost Ark and a half-dozen of our scrotums (scrota?) to get him.

I see them squatting at the base of Gretzky’s statue, rolling bones and chanting, “Pa-REES-eh! Pa-REES-eh! Pussy! Pa-REES-eh! Parse! Pa-REES-eh!”